We are delighted to help Kobus with their latest funding round which is also being supported by Midven midven.co.uk. The business is now revenue generating and this funding round secures the necessary capital for further development within the water industry.

Tuesday, 26 February 2013

Secantor is pleased to support the the latest funding round of Activ8 www.a8i.co.uk a ground breaking company in the field of HR analytics.

Organisations these days are more and more dependant upon their human capital for their success. HR analytics takes HR intelligence out of the HR department and into the organisation so that performance becomes transparent. This is at the heart of what Secantor do from a financial perspective, taking a finance function from something that is to do with compliance and upgrading it to financial intelligence at the heart of the organisation's decision making process.

The "merger" of HR analytics and financial analytics is a "hot topic" and one which Secantor is proud to be involved with.

Not only does Activ8 look at past performance metrics but combines this with predictave technologies to forecast likely outcomes. A powerful tool in assessing the required criteria for individuals that a business is looking to employ. This is is similar to Secantor's financial approach which seeks to build on historic financial information to forecast "what if scenarios" for SMEs. This effectively reduces risk and maximises return.

Let's get HR and Finance working together to add value for organisations!

Thursday, 24 January 2013

Building your finance function is not a one size fits all exercise. There are a wide range of choices:

1) There is the people mix, in terms of matching the differing levels of seniority. Why go to a recruiter as the first stage? Prior to this you need to understand the apprtopriate staff mix for the finance function and this is where Secantor can help you; with the decisions about whether you should appoint at the bookeeper level, the mangement accountant level, the financial controller level or a part-time finance director. All of this will mean that you have the appropriate input of expertise and skills at the appropriate level. In this way you will end up saving costs on your finance function by ensuring the right amount of input, at the right level. Many businesses from £2m t/o upwards should have a finance director but you do not usually need a full time finance director until your turnover is in excess of £30m. At this level, it is not so much about time as it is about skills, and experience.

2) Growing businesses need to start to integrate their finance function as an information centre. This then delivers real value by helping management run the business, and to enable effective delegation that is required for growth.To achieve effective delegation mangament need regular information for planning and control purposes. Ensuring that the finance function is delivering value to management is the domain of the FD.

3) At Secantor we have many years of experience of developing finance functions for SMEs. We can help guide you through the maze of what at first sight only appears to be a cost. We can paint a picture for you of how your business might look in the future and the building blocks to get there. An effective finance function should be coupled with stakeholder management, through your part-time FD so that you can focus on growing the business knowing that your investors and bankers are being kept informed. This means that there are no "shocks or surprises" building confidence that mangment are capable of running a larger business.

4) Systems and processes are critical in the development of the finance function and its linkages with other parts of the organisation. Secantor harnesses the talent of all its people to ensure the right solution for you.

5) Outsourcing. We have many clients that simply ask us to run their finance functions with agreed outputs this can not ony be cost effective but scalable to avoid those step changes you might experience through employing extra people.